Arms of Fane, Earls of Westmorland Arms: Azure, three dextergauntlets back affrontée Or. Crest: Out of a Ducal Coronet Or, a Bull's Head of Brindled colour, armed Or, charged on the neck with a Rose Gules. Supporters:Dexter: a Griffin per fess Argent and Or, collared and line reflexed over the back Sable. Sinister: a Pied or Brindled Bull, collared and line terminating in a Ring and three Staples Or.[1]
Ne Vile Fano ("Disgrace not the altar"; Fane) Ne vile velis ("Form no mean wish"; Neville)
Earl of Westmorland is a title that has been created twice in the Peerage of England. The title was first created in 1397 for Ralph Neville. It was forfeited in 1571 by Charles Neville, 6th Earl of Westmorland, for leading the Rising of the North. It was revived in 1624 in favour of Sir Francis Fane, whose mother, Mary Neville, was a descendant of a younger son of the first Earl. The first Earl of the first creation had already become Baron Neville de Raby, and that was a subsidiary title for his successors. The current Earl holds the subsidiary title Baron Burghersh (1624).
Ralph Neville, 4th Baron Neville of Raby, and 1st earl of Westmorland (1364–1425), eldest son of John, 3rd Baron Neville, and his wife Maud Percy (see Neville, Family), was knighted by Thomas of Woodstock, afterwards duke of Gloucester, during the French expedition of 1380, and succeeded to his father's barony in 1388. He had been joint warden of the west march in 1386, and was reappointed for a new term in 1390. In 1391 he was put on the commission which undertook the duties of constable in place of the duke of Gloucester, and he was repeatedly engaged in negotiations with the Scots. His support of the court party against the lords appellant was rewarded in 1397 by the earldom of Westmorland.[2]
Westmorland married as his second wife Joan Beaufort, half-sister of Henry of Lancaster, afterwards Henry IV, whom he joined on his landing in Yorkshire in 1399. He already held the castles of Brancepeth, Raby, Middleham and Sheriff Hutton when he received from Henry IV the honour and lordship of Richmond for life. The only rivals of the Nevilles in the north were the Percies, whose power was broken at Shrewsbury in 1403. Both marches had been in their hands, but the wardenship of the west marches was now assigned to Westmorland, whose influence was also paramount in the east, which was under the nominal wardenship of the young Prince John, afterwards duke of Bedford. Westmorland had prevented Northumberland from marching to reinforce Hotspur in 1403, and before embarking on a new revolt he sought to secure his enemy, surrounding, but too late, one of Sir Ralph Eure's castles where the earl had been staying. In May the Percies were in revolt, with the Earl Marshal, Thomas, 4th Earl of Norfolk, and Richard le Scrope, Archbishop of York. Westmorland met them on Shipton Moor, near York, on 29 May 1405, and suggested a parley between the leaders. By pretending accord with the archbishop, the earl induced him to allow his followers to disperse. Scrope and Mowbray were then seized and handed over to Henry at Pontefract on 3 January. The improbabilities of this narrative have led some writers to think, in face of contemporary authorities, that Scrope and Mowbray must have surrendered voluntarily. If Westmorland betrayed them he at least had no share in their execution.[2]
Thenceforward Westmorland was busily engaged in negotiating with the Scots and keeping the peace on the borders. He did not play the part assigned to him by Shakespeare in Henry V., for during Henry's absence he remained in charge of the north, and was a member of Bedford's council. He consolidated the strength of his family through marriage alliances. His daughter Catherine married in 1412 John, 2nd Duke of Norfolk, brother and heir of the Earl Marshal, who had been executed after Shipton Moor; Anne married Humphrey, 1st Duke of Buckingham; Eleanor married, after the death of her first husband Richard le Despenser, Henry Percy, 2nd Earl of Northumberland; Cecily married Richard, 3rd Duke of York, and was the mother of Edward IV and Richard III. The sons by his second marriage were Richard, 5th Earl of Salisbury, William, Baron Fauconberg, George, Baron Latimer, Robert, bishop of Salisbury and then of Durham, and Edward, Baron Abergavenny. The earl died on 21 October 1425, and a fine alabaster tomb was erected to his memory in Staindrop church close by Raby Castle.[2]
Ralph Neville, 2nd Earl of Westmorland (c. 1404–1484), the son of John, Lord Neville (died 1423), succeeded his grandfather in 1425, and married as his first wife Elizabeth Percy, dowager Baroness Clifford, the daughter of Sir Henry "Hotspur" Percy, thus forming further bonds with the Percies. The 3rd Earl, Ralph Neville (1456–1499), was his nephew, and the son of John Neville, Lord Neville, who was slain at the Battle of Towton. His grandson Ralph Neville, 4th Earl of Westmorland (1499–1550), was an energetic border warrior, who remained faithful to the royal cause when the other great northern lords joined the Pilgrimage of Grace. He was succeeded by his son Henry, 5th Earl (c. 1525–1563).[3]
Charles Neville, 6th Earl (1543–1601), eldest son of the 5th earl by his first wife Anne, daughter of Thomas Manners, 1st Earl of Rutland, was brought up a Roman Catholic, and was further attached to the Catholic party by his marriage with Jane, daughter of Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey. He was a member of the council of the north in 1569 when he joined Thomas Percy, 7th Earl of Northumberland, and his uncle Christopher Neville, in the Catholic Rising of the North, which had as its object the liberation of Mary Queen of Scots. On the collapse of the ill-organised insurrection, Westmorland fled with his brother earl over the borders, and eventually to the Spanish Netherlands, where he lived in receipt of a pension from Philip II of Spain, until his death on 16 November 1601. He left no sons, and his honours were forfeited by his formal attainder in 1571. Raby Castle remained in the hands of the crown until 1645.[4]
During the reign of James I, the earldom was claimed by Edward Neville, a descendant of George Neville, 1st Baron Latymer. Though the claimant was recognised as the heir-male of the first Earl of Westmorland, his claim was not admitted due to the attainder.[5]
Fane shield in Fulbeck.
He died about 1640. "There was issue male existing long after the 17th century from the 1st Lord Latimer of this creation. That from Thomas Nevill, of Pigotts Ardley, co. Essex (who d. 1550 and who was next yr. br. to William Nevill abovenamed and to John, the 3d Lord Latimer), ancestor of the Nevills, of Halstead, in that county, is said to have existed for eight generations in Drummond's "Noble British Families"" [6] See also[7]
The title was revived in 1624 in favour of Sir Francis Fane, whose mother, Mary Neville, was a descendant of a younger son of the first Earl of the 1397 creation. He was created Baron Burghersh, in the County of Sussex, and Earl of Westmorland in the Peerage of England 1624, and became Baron le Despencer on his mother's death in 1626. His son Mildmay Fane, 2nd Earl of Westmorland, at first sided with the king's party in the English Civil War, but was afterwards reconciled with the parliament. John Fane, 7th Earl of Westmorland, served under the Duke of Marlborough, and was made in 1739 lieutenant-general of the British Armies.[4]
John Fane, 11th Earl of Westmorland, only son of John Fane, 10th Earl of Westmorland, entered the army in 1803, and in 1805 took part in the Hanoverian campaign as aide-de-camp to General Sir George Don. He was assistant adjutant-general in Sicily and Egypt (1806–1807), served in the Peninsular War from 1808 to 1813, was British military commissioner to the allied armies under the Prince of Schwarzenberg, and marched with the allies to Paris in 1814. He was subsequently promoted major general (1825), lieutenant-general (1838) and general (1854), although the latter half of his life was given to the diplomatic service. He was a British resident in Florence from 1814 to 1830, and British ambassador at Berlin from 1841 to 1851, when he was transferred to Vienna. In Berlin, he had mediated in the Schleswig-Holstein question, and in Vienna, he was one of the British plenipotentiaries at the congress of 1855. He retired in 1855, and died at Apethorpe Hall, Northamptonshire, on 16 October 1859. Himself a musician of considerable reputation and the composer of several operas, he took a keen interest in the cause of music in England, and in 1822 made proposals which led to the foundation in the next year of the Royal Academy of Music. His wife Priscilla Anne, daughter of William Wellesley-Pole, 3rd Earl of Mornington, was a distinguished artist.[4]
His published works include Memoirs of the Early Campaigns of the Duke of Wellington in Portugal and Spain (1820), and Memoir of the Operations of the Allied Armies under Prince Schwarzenberg and Marshal Blucher (1822).[4]
Francis Fane, 12th Earl of Westmorland, fourth son of the preceding, was also a distinguished soldier. He entered the army in 1843 and served through the Punjab campaign of 1846; was made aide-de-camp to the governor-general in 1848, and distinguished himself at the Battle of Gujrat on 21 February 1849. He went to the Crimean War as aide-de-camp to Lord Raglan, and was promoted lieutenant colonel in 1855. On his return to England, he became aide-de-camp to the duke of Cambridge, and received the Crimean Medal. The death of his elder brother in 1851 gave him the style of Lord Burghersh, and after his accession to the earldom in 1859, he retired from the service with the rank of colonel. He died in August 1891 and was succeeded by his son, Anthony Fane, 13th Earl of Westmorland.[4]
Heraldic achievement of Fane family, Earls of Westmorland. Latin motto: Ne Vile Fano, generally rendered in English as "Disgrace not the altar"; literally translated: "Do not (put something) cheap in the temple". The motto is a play on the names Nevile and Fane, with which former family the crest of a bull's head is shared. The ancient motto of Neville is: Ne vile velis, "form no mean wish", literally: "do not wish for (something) cheap"
Joan Beaufort was the youngest of the four legitimised children and only daughter of John of Gaunt, 1st Duke of Lancaster, by his mistress, later wife, Katherine Swynford. She married Ralph de Neville, 1st Earl of Westmorland and in her widowhood became a powerful landowner in the north of England.
Ralph Neville, 1st Earl of WestmorlandEarl Marshal, was an English nobleman of the House of Neville.
Marquess of Abergavenny in the County of Monmouth, is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom created on 14 January 1876, along with the title Earl of Lewes, in the County of Sussex, for the 5th Earl of Abergavenny, a member of the Nevill family.
The title Baron Bergavenny was created several times in the Peerage of England and once in the Peerage of Great Britain, all but the first being baronies created by error. Abergavenny is a market town in South East Wales with a castle established by the Norman lord Hamelin de Balun c. 1087.
The Lord Warden of the Marches was an office in the governments of Scotland and England. The holders were responsible for the security of the border between the two nations, and often took part in military action. They were also responsible, along with 'Conservators of the truce', for administering the special type of border law known as March law.
Thomas de Mowbray, 4th Earl of Norfolk, 2nd Earl of Nottingham, 8th Baron Segrave, 7th Baron Mowbray, English nobleman and rebel, was the son of Thomas de Mowbray, 1st Duke of Norfolk, and Lady Elizabeth FitzAlan.
Baron Neville or Nevill was a title of nobility in England, relating to and held by the Neville family, a noble house in northern England. The Nevilles had their family seat at the manor of Raby in County Durham, and so were called barons "Neville of Raby". The title was first held as a barony by tenure, and was afterwards created twice by writ of summons to parliament.
The title of Baron Burghersh has been created three times in the Peerage of England.
John Fane, 7th Earl of Westmorland, styled The Honourable John Fane from 1691 to 1733 and Lord Catherlough from 1733 to 1736, of Mereworth Castle in Kent, was a British Army officer and politician who sat in the House of Commons in three separate stretches between 1708 and 1734.
Francis Fane, 1st Earl of Westmorland, of Mereworth in Kent and of Apethorpe in Northamptonshire was an English landowner and politician who sat in the House of Commons between 1601 and 1624 and then was raised to the Peerage as Earl of Westmorland.
Margaret Stafford was the daughter of Hugh de Stafford, 2nd Earl of Stafford, and Philippa de Beauchamp. She was the first wife of Ralph Neville, 1st Earl of Westmorland, and the grandmother of the 2nd Earl.
Ralph Neville, 2nd Baron Neville of Raby was an English aristocrat, the son of Ralph Neville, 1st Baron Neville de Raby by Eupheme de Clavering.
William Conyers, 1st Baron Conyers, also known as William Conyers of Hornby, was an English baron and aristocrat.
Eleanor Neville was the second daughter of Ralph de Neville, 1st Earl of Westmorland, by his second wife, Joan Beaufort, daughter of John of Gaunt, 1st Duke of Lancaster, and Katherine Swynford.
The Neville or Nevill family is a noble house of early medieval origin, which was a leading force in English politics in the later Middle Ages. The family became one of the two major powers in northern England and played a central role in the Wars of the Roses along with their rival, the House of Percy.
Richard le Scrope was an English cleric who served as Bishop of Coventry and Lichfield and Archbishop of York and was executed in 1405 for his participation in the Northern Rising against King Henry IV.
Vere Fane, 4th Earl of Westmorland, styled The Honourable Vere Fane from 1644 to 1661 and Sir Vere Fane from 1661 to 1691, was a British peer and Member of Parliament for Peterborough and twice for Kent.
Ralph Neville, 2nd Earl of Westmorland was an English nobleman in northern England.
Sir Francis Fane of Fulbeck supported the Royalist cause during the English Civil War.
Lieutenant-Colonel Anthony Mildmay Julian Fane, 13th Earl of Westmorland, CBE, JP, styled Lord Burghersh between October 1859 and 1891, was a British peer.
References
Burke, John (1831). A general and heraldic dictionary of the peerages of England, Ireland, and Scotland, extinct, dormant, and in abeyance. England. London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley.
§: Disclaimed.Italics: This title is held by a peer who holds another earldom of higher precedence.
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